Water flush toilets are a common fixture in most modern bathrooms, and are found both in the home and in institutional healthcare facilities. The physical configuration and design of the typical toilet has remained much the same in over sixty years. Although common and typically easy to use for most individuals, toilets of current configuration and design can present substantial problems to incapacitated, infirmed or disabled persons. The most basic problem encountered is the person's ability to lower himself or herself down onto the toilet seat and to then raise himself or herself up from the toilet seat. Insufficient joint stability, muscle weakness and other physical problems can make this a most formidable task indeed.
There have been previous attempts to design and fabricate lift devices to assist incapacitated, infirmed or disabled persons with lowering them down onto a toilet seat and then with raising them up from the toilet seat. In the experience of these inventors, however, the devices of the prior art are substantially more complex than they need to be, or should be. Such complex devices can be difficult to use and may not be usable in surroundings where clearance between the toilet and other fixtures is minimal. Accordingly, these inventors believe that there is a need for a simple, inexpensive, easy-to-install and easy-to-use lift device that will provide incapacitated, infirmed or disabled persons with the ability to be lowered onto or raised from a toilet, by themselves or with assistance from a health care provider.
Such a lift device would utilize a portion of the toilet seat itself as the primary vehicle for lowering and raising the individual. Such a lift device, of necessity, would be also need to be capable of being used with, and secured to, a wide variety of toilet bowls of conventional manufacture. Such a lift device would also utilize a minimal footprint for suitable use within a variety of settings.